refectory
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of refectory
1475–85; < Late Latin refectōrium, equivalent to Latin refec-, combining form of reficere to renew ( see refect) + -tōrium -tory 2
Explanation
A fancy word for a dining hall, or a place for communal meals, is a refectory. It is usually used to describe a dining hall in a religious institution, like where monks eat together. The word refectory comes from the Latin word reficere which means "to restore, renew." A meal together is a great way of restoring unity to a group. Nothing renews community like a great dinner, and the conversation that occurs around it. Lunch in your school's refectory? Maybe not so much.
Vocabulary lists containing refectory
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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"The Most Dangerous Game" by Richard Connell
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Jane Eyre
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The oak refectory tables and benches, crafted by Robert "Mouseman" Thompson and featuring his trademark mice carvings, had been donated by former pupils.
From BBC ● Nov. 23, 2025
What is the purpose of a room called a refectory?
From Slate ● Dec. 18, 2023
Thus admonished, we made our way to the refectory, expecting a small meal at best, perhaps a plain broth and dry bread.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 4, 2021
The painting, in oil on canvas, was commissioned by her own convent of Santa Caterina; once completed, it was hung on the nuns’ refectory wall.
From The Guardian ● Oct. 19, 2019
But that meant long services in the oratory rather than well-filled tables in the refectory.
From "The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage" by Philip Pullman
Designers are conjuring all kinds of nonkitchen-y arenas, like the refectories of old boarding schools, a signature of Christopher Peacock, the English-born kitchen designer once known for his all-white offerings.
From New York Times ● Oct. 2, 2017
The refectories, kitchens, and the cells of the monks exceed in point of antiquity anything of the kind in Europe.
From Visits To Monasteries in the Levant by Curzon, Robert
Heretical writings continued to find entrance into many of the religious houses, and were even read aloud in refectories, and used as text-books by the professors.
From Studies from Court and Cloister: being essays, historical and literary dealing mainly with subjects relating to the XVIth and XVIIth centuries by Stone, J. M. (Jean Mary)
On each side of the main court, against the outer wall, is another court, with buildings round it, consisting of kitchen and refectories on the one side, and hospital wards on the other.
From Architecture Classic and Early Christian by Smith, T. Roger (Thomas Roger)
They did not hide themselves in refectories and dormitories, but lived perpetually before the public.
From Lives of the Necromancers by Godwin, William
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
